#and evfra's here too :3

[nightingaletrash]

Jaal recruited :D

[satashiiwrites]

Fuck it Friday

tagged by @monsterrae1 to share something for Fuck it Friday. Thanks for the tag! Tagging whoever wants to play along, @tkwritesdumbassassins @outtoshatter (no pressure) or anyone else who wants to play along.

Posting an older wip that I should totally work on at some point…

Title: If I See You in My Dreams

Fandom: Mass Effect Andromeda

Pairing: MReyder as always

Tags/warnings: first draft. Reyes has prophetic dreams and it doesn’t always end well for him or his family historically.

Keema stared at him for a moment, hesitating before joining Evfra and the others.  “Sholaon?” She asked quietly.

He shook his head, biting his cheek instead of speaking.  Sara and half of Scott’s team was still in there and Scott didn’t need him too.  Reyes just needed to convince his feet to move and be productive doing something—anything—that wasn’t here. 

Gently patting his jaw with her hand, Keema gave him a pitying look before she entered the small medbay. She purposefully left the door ajar instead of letting it close behind her. 

“Scott Ryder—I hope you are well,” her greeting carried out into the hallway, spoken loud enough for Reyes to easily hear. 

“Keema,” Scott’s voice was a bit soft but still distinct. “I’m okay.  How are you.”

“I am good Scott Ryder.”

“Do I have to remind you it’s just Scott? Again?” 

Keema laughed. “At least once more Sholaon.”

There was nervous laughter that sounded like Scott’s.  “So how did you know we needed your help?  You got here so fast that it couldn’t have been the distress call.”

There was a pregnant silence with neither Evfra nor Keema answering. “Yes how did you know how to find Meridian?” Jaal—the smug bastard—asked.  

Evfra cleared his throat.  “We were forewarned and it is good that we got here in time to assist.  Had the Kett taken Meridian it would have been difficult to unseat them.”

“Yeah it would have,” Scott agreed. “But seriously.  Who alerted you?  I didn’t know you guys had such good kett intel.”

Reyes could feel the awkward silence and visualized Keema and Evfra debating what to tell his lover since Scott didn’t seem to be in the know. “You should ask our mutual friend,” Keema finally said. 

“What?”  Scott’s question was pure confusion while a woman’s voice Reyes sort of recognized asked, “Who’s your mutual friend?” 

More silence.  Reyes rubbed at his face tiredly, 

“Forewarned.  You said you were forewarned.”  His lover sounded like he was deep in thought. 

“Yes.  As I have been told you humans have a saying that forewarned is forearmed.”

Scott snorted. “Of course he’d say that.”

There was a few titters from what sounded like Peebee and Liam as well as a growl from Jaal.  Why was he the one angaran who didn’t like Reyes on sight? Had he offended Jaal in a previous life?  

He didn’t need to stand here listening to this.  Scott was up and talking.  He’d… he’d find Reyes later or Reyes would just message him to stop by Kadara when he had a chance.   Reyes slunk away down the slightly tilted hallways and out onto the surface, using the same emergency hatch exit he’d used to climb aboard the Hyperion.  Finding his people, he started directing them to help with the cleanup of the remaining kett forces.  They needed to make sure none escaped.

Quickly becoming buried in the work of organizing and coordinating between the Kadaran forces and the Resistance, hours slipped by and night fell.  Reyes was nose deep in a compiled local map projection and talking with the scouting groups when he became aware that someone was standing behind him. 

“Red-5 keep your heading. Take Red-3 and Blue-8 with you. There’s a tangle of the Scourge ahead so keep your speed down and reply back every five.”

“Acknowledged.  Reply back every five,” the pilot said. “Red-5 out.”

Dimming the map so it wasn’t blinding him, Reyes looked over his shoulder to see Scott had managed to escape the infirmary and was leaning against a stack of crates.  He was wearing a soft looking Initaitve hoodie with his arm in a sling but his legs were still encased in armor and his boots that were pretty scuffed up.  His vida looked tired, eyes bruised and skin pale as he studied Reyes with eyes that were gleaming electric blue in the reflected light from the map. In his hands he had two mugs that steamed invitingly and he held one out to Reyes. 

“How are we doing?”  Scott pointed his chin towards the dimmed map. 

Reyes shrugged and took a sip of the coffee which must have come from the Hyperion. “Mop up.  It’ll take a bit.”

Scott frowned, eyes following the movement of fighters on the map.  “How many kett are the still finding?”

“More than a few.”  There had been a surprising number of kett fighters that had scattered after the Verakan had been scuttled by the Architect.  There wasn’t much left of the Archon’s flagship but they’d had to push the other dreadnaught into crashing into the Scourge and that ship had time to try and evacuate so they were hunting all the escape pods and fighters that had been ejected before it’d blown. 

Silent, Scott was still looking at him.  “What?”

“Evfra said that the intel about the Archon heading to Meridian came from you—before I sent out that distress call.”  He said it as a statement not a question.

“Yes?”  Reyes deflected. “You needed help.”

Scott’s lips twisted as he pressed them together in displeasure. “How did you know?  You knew before.”

“Are you accusing me of something?” Reyes asked mildly, not admitting to anything.  He was curious what was going on in his vida’s head. 

“I’m not.  I just find it interesting how you’re able to know these things.  It’s almost like…”

“Like what?”

“Like you can see the future.”

Reyes scoffed, nervous and trying to deflect.

“Don’t,” Scott said sharply, setting his mug down and approaching Reyes until there was less than a handbreadth between their chests, eyes searching Reyes’ face.  “You’re scared. Of what I’m not sure.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Reyes admitted softly, shoulders slumping. “I… it’s difficult to talk about.”

“How you got the intel?” 

“No—well yes.”  Scott was scowling now but he was reaching for Reyes to draw him in closer, free arm wrapping around his waist to close the gap between their bodies. 

“You know you can tell me anything right?  That what you tell me stays between us?  I may be Initiative but you and me… we’re… we’re what? Boyfriends?”

“Partners,” Reyes disagreed immediately trying not to make a face at being tagged Scott’s boyfriend. “Boyfriends implies we are just trying each other out.”

“And we’re not,” Scott agreed. 

“We’re more than boyfriends… at least to me,” Reyes admitted softly. 

“Good to know I’m not the only one.” The scowl disappeared but there was still a worried wrinkle around the eyes. “But seriously Rey, you can tell me anything.”

“What if this changes how you feel about me?  What if it’s… something that makes you think differently of me?”  He hadn’t been this anxious about telling Keema as he’d been too terrified at the time of Scott dying. 

Scott shook his head in swift denial. “I think there’s very little you could say that would change how I feel about you… which… I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.  I know it hasn’t been that long but I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

“Mi vida,” Reyes couldn’t stop himself and he was kissing Scott, hands coming up to cup around his face to get a better angle after setting the coffee down. Scott went willingly, mouth opening under Reyes’ as they shared breath. It was like coming home and it settled something in Reyes as they moved against one another.  Scott was alive and here in his arms, out of danger and in love with him. 

His dreams were coming true. All of them and it wasn’t the ones bathed in pain and blood. 

Pulling back to breathe, Reyes leaned his forehead against Scott’s with his eyes closed.  “Sometimes… sometimes I see things.”

The arm around his waist squeezed and released but still held him. “What kind of things?”

Reluctantly, Reyes opened his eyes.  This close, Scott’s eyes were the sapphire blue of twilight and focused fully on him. “Possible futures… and sometimes the past.”

“Really?”  Scott didn’t sound like he disbelieved Reyes but instead like he was processing. “Like how?”

Shrugging, Reyes tried to put a bit of distance between their bodies but Scott didn’t let him escape. “I dream every night… and the closer it is to the present the sharper it gets as there are less possible outcomes.”

“And it comes true?”

He could only nod, trapped by Scott but unwilling to pull away again. 

“Huh.”  Scott looked thoughtful, gaze unfocused as he processed Reyes’ confession.

“I thought for the longest time that I wouldn’t get to meet you.”

“What?”  Scott’s eyes sharpened and the arm tightened again. “What do you mean?”

Biting his lips, Reyes tried to explain. “I saw…something terrible happening.  War and so many deaths—genocide. It was why I joined the Initiative.  I thought it would take me away from you.”

“How long have you been seeing me in your future dreams?”

“Since before I can remember.”  Scott had been there forever except for the almost two years before the Hyperion had entered Heleus after he’d awakened from six hundred years of cryo which he thankfully didn’t remember any dreams from. 

Scott stared at him. “You’ve… you’ve been dreaming of me that long?”

Blushing, Reyes dropped his eyes to look down at Scott’s chest. “You’ve been the love of my dreams forever.”

Scott shifted and that band-like arm released him so that it could catch his chin and tilt it so he had no choice but to look at Scott so he closed his eyes.  He didn’t want to see the shock and horror he was sure he’d find. “Rey—look at me please.”

“No.  Mi vida please I mean that I’ve—“

Scott shut him up by kissing him again.  When he spoke it was against Reyes’ mouth. “You’ve been in love with me that long?”

Nodding dumbly, Reyes didn’t resist when Scott went back to kissing him, tongues tangling. Somehow, he ended up stumbling backwards into a stack of crates, Scott’s body pressing firmly into him like he wanted to climb under Reyes’ skin. Trapped between Scott and the hard surface, Reyes could only cling to his vida. 

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Scott whispered against his mouth. “I think you would only have to ask me and I’d do anything for you.”

“Never that,” Reyes said horrified. “Mi vida—“

“Love you,” Scott interrupted.  “So tell me… what do you see in our future. A bed?”

Caught flat-footed, Reyes looked around them.  There was nothing but stacked crates and anyone could wander by at any time. Scott snorted and then was laughing, his weight still pinning Reyes against the crates. 

“It doesn’t quite work that way,” Reyes grumbled. 

“Oh it doesn’t does it?  Because I definitely see a bed in our future.”

“Where?”  Reyes gestured. 

“I do have a suite on the Hyperion… with a very comfortable bed… and possibly a shower,” he said wrinkling his nose.  “We’re both kinda gross and I don’t know about you…”

That was when Red-5 did his five minute check in and made them freeze. “Red-5 no kett sightings. Continuing on our heading.”

“Acknowledged,” Reyes said into his comm before flicking it back off. “I need to continue coordinating.”

“But later?” Scott arched an eyebrow suggestively. 

“Later.  Give me an hour or two?”  He should have the majority of this done by then and he could hand off anything that wasn’t. 

“Fine,” Scott sighed leaning in for another brief kiss. “But only an hour or two and then I expect you in our bed.”

“Our?”

Backing up with a mischievous grin, hair disheveled from where Reyes’ hands had been tangled in it, Scott purposefully gave a long leer at Reyes. “What’s mine is yours? What’s yours is mine?”

Laughing, Reyes could only nod in agreement. “Yes mi vida. Let me get this finished and I will join you.”

“Can’t wait.  Don’t make me hunt you down again.”  Scott disappeared in the maze of packing crates with a wink.

[diavolodigitale]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Andromeda Galaxy - pt.4 Voeld

And, finally, this is the last existing part of this pathetic piece of writing. It is even more awkward than the previous ones since here you can witness attempts at “plot”. Anyway, there is no continuation to this and never will be unless someone manages to convince me otherwise (I don’t think it’s possible though). 

Genres: comedy, romance (vaguely), friendship maybe.

Pairing: m!Ryder/Evfra

Characters: Ryder, Evfra, Jaal, others occasionally 

Rating: PG

Warnings: cringe alert!

Size: this atrocity is around 17 PAGES LONG so, yeah, keep that in mind

All chapters: Pt.1 - Pt.2 - Pt.3 - Pt.4 ----- All chapters in PDF

“Pathfinder, you have a new email,” rang out SAM’s lifeless voice on the bridge.

“Thanks, SAM,” replied Ryder even though he didn’t really have to.

He approached the terminal, wondering who the email might be from.

“I bet it’s Peebee,” presumed Kalo when Ryder approached the terminal, “you know how she likes sending emails instead of just coming up to you and communicating directly.”

“I can hear you!” yelled Peebee from the escape pod and loudly dropped something on the floor.

 Urgent Matter

To: Ryder

From: Evfra

I received information according to which colonists from Taerve Uni attacked the Resistance Base. I do not know any details yet. The shuttle of the colonists is now being examined by my specialists.

I advise you not to spread the word on the Nexus. Come to Voeld as soon as possible. I will meet you at the Base.

 “Shit,” mumbled Ryder, dismayed by the news. “Kalo, we’re changing the course. The new destination point is Voeld.”

On their way James was sweating profusely. He felt flustered and didn’t know what to expect from the situation. He was afraid that the moment they stepped onto the icy surface of Voeld, the Resistance soldiers would raise their weapons and no negotiations would be held. Ever.

“You okay?” Vetra closed the door to the airlock section where he was sitting and approached him.

“Could be better,” he answered without even raising his head.

“Who else knows?” she asked, taking a seat beside him.

“Jaal, obviously.”

“Yeah, not telling him would be stupid. If things go south, he’s the only one who can help us out.”

“I just hope everything isn’t how we think it is,” said Ryder quietly and sighed. “We cannot allow any mistakes. With angara, there are no second chances.”

“Don’t think about it yet, we’ll draw a conclusion when we see everything with our own eyes.”

“Thank you,” James exhaled loudly as if their conversation helped him to calm down a bit and looked at Vetra. “I mean it,” he said and forced himself to smile a bit.

“Stop it. I’m so used to your dumb jokes that seeing you being sincere seems freaky.”

“I knew my sense of humor isn’t that bad,” said Ryder more gaily and lightly bumped Vetra’s shoulder with his fist. “You should appreciate it while I’m here with you all, ‘cause something tells me Evfra is going to beat the crap outta me. Then I won’t be able to come up with such ingenious jokes anymore.”

“You’re overexaggerating. I think you’ll still be able to talk, hon,” retorted Vetra and returned him the whack.

“Well, that’s a relief.”

They set together until the Tempest landed. Following Evfra’s advice, Ryder decided not to tell anybody on the Nexus or aboard the ship about the reason for their coming to Voeld. He didn’t want to make the crew agitated before confirming or disproving the information he got. This didn’t include Vetra because he knew he could trust her with such matters: she was the pillar of strength in every difficult situation, always able to think clearly in spite of unfavorable circumstances. Jaal was the second one to be let in on this secret since keeping him in the dark when it came to his people was simply mean. He was the member of the Resistance after all.

“Are you going to tell us what’s all the fuss about?” asked Suvi when Ryder was hastily leaving the ship. The tension aboard the Tempest was practically palpable at this point.

“Nope,” he answered without hesitation.

“All the emails are supposedly checked by the Nexus, so if something’s up, we’ll know sooner or later,” stated Kalo, remotely closing the lock after the Pathfinder left.

“Should’ve known that…” hissed Peebee in her escape pod, rummaging in her observer.

“Wait, Kalo, open the lock!” Vetra rushed onto the bridge in full gear. Jaal followed her swiftly.

“Guys, could you have made up your minds sooner?” asked Kalo irritably.

“Hurry up and open the lock or he’ll leave without us!” Vetra was clearly pissed and couldn’t see any reason for Kalo’s incompliance.

“If you exploit mechanical parts of the ship too much, they break faster and—”

“Kalo!”

“There is really no need to be so rude…” Kalo felt like complaining, but still did what he was asked to.

Using her jump-jet, Vetra made it to James in a couple long jumps.

“Hey, Ryder! What about us?” She caught up with him and stopped on his way.

“I think it’s best if you stay on the Tempest. I’ll deal with it on my own, nobody has to get in trouble. I’m the Pathfinder and it’s my responsibility,” he said dejectedly.

Vetra clicked her tongue and crossed her arms.

“Ryder, let me come with you,” almost pleaded Jaal in a hoarse voice; he was obviously anxious. “I may be able to change Evfra’s mind. I have known him for a long time now, you won’t handle him alone.”

James had already decided to go into the beast’s lair on his own so now he was just thinking over the plausible excuses to make everybody stay aboard the ship.

Vetra knocked on his helmet with her index finger.

“Hello? Anybody in there?”

Pathfinder loudly coughed and, trying to calm himself down a bit, started his impromptu speech.

“You know, I am really grateful to you all, but there are moments in life when you just have to accept some things and be ready to sacrifice…”

“Boy oh boy, he really thinks this nonsense will work,” said Vetra in a monotonous voice.

It seemed to Ryder that she even rolled her eyes under her helmet.

“Just take Jaal and go. But I want a full report after,” she conceded, “since you’ve decided that I should know about all this. See you later, I guess.”

Ryder and Jaal exchanged quick glances as she returned to the ship.

“Fair enough.” Pathfinder wiped the screen of his helmet with his left hand. The snow was clogging it, making it impossible to see.

The Tempest had landed right near the Resistance Base. Ryder didn’t want to go to the human colony until he saw what really happened and decided what to think of it.

Evfra was waiting for him inside the construction hunched over the reports lying on the table. It was dead cold, as always, but, because James was so uneasy, he felt as if he was on Elaaden with its scorching sun and torrid sands.

“Pathfinder,” sharply said Evfra, still towering over the pile of datapads on the table. That startled Ryder who was at the moment thinking of how to initialize the conversation.

“Evfra… I already forgot how cold it is on Voeld on days like this…” James was nervously rubbing the holster of a pistol attached to his leg. Jaal tried to encourage him with a light pat on the back, letting him know that he was still there.

“I’ve inspected everything. No casualties from our side. A few angara are mildly injured, but nothing serious,” went on Evfra. Surprisingly to Ryder, he did not even sound particularly mad.

“Meaning… you are not going to beat me?” asked the Pathfinder cautiously.

“I was thinking about that,”—Evfra finally turned around and faced Ryder—“but no. Not today, at least.” He nodded to Jaal, recognizing his presence.

“What about those who attempted an attack?” asked Jaal who obviously had more control of himself than Ryder.

“Little is known for sure. They were wearing colonists’ outfits. The shuttle also belonged to the colony. Nobody survived the attack, so we couldn’t interrogate them. At the moment we have a crashed shuttle and five unidentified bodies,” emotionlessly reported Evfra.

Jaal addressed Ryder, who looked like he was awaiting further intelligence still.

“Ryder, we should take a look at the shuttle.”

“Yes, of course. Let’s go,” agreed the Pathfinder almost immediately.

Evfra led Ryder and Jaal to the crash site. A few angaran soldiers were guarding it.

“Quite far from the Base itself,” noticed Jaal.

“Yes, and only one shuttle. It doesn’t look like a well-planned intrusion to me.” Evfra dismissed the soldiers and invited the Pathfinder to examine the site.

With estranged look and blank mind, Ryder began scanning. Even though Evfra didn’t seem mad and the other angara weren’t hostile towards him, the situations worried him. He couldn’t understand why somebody would do something like this. The colony on Voeld symbolized the union of two races and served the needs of both. People who agreed to live there knew what they signed up for when they came to the planet shared with the angara.

“Pathfinder, I cannot identify these people. They are not on the list of Voeld inhabitants,” reported SAM using public channel.

“What about the Nexus?” asked Ryder, confused. “We are the only people who came to Andromeda. There is no way they are not from the Nexus.”

“At the moment I have no access to full census. You can request that the next time you’re on the station,” responded SAM.

Ryder continued to scan, desperate to find at least some useful clues, while Evfra and Jaal were examining the bodies and the equipment of the intruders.

“The clothes as well as some of their supplies indeed come from Taerve Uni. They were listed as missing a week ago,” continued SAM after Ryder scanned the leftovers of a few containers.

“Why didn’t we receive any reports about that?” he asked. It seemed as quite an important piece of information to not share with the leadership of the Nexus.

“Perhaps, the governor of the colony considered it to be too insignificant to inform the Pathfinder,” assumed Jaal.

“What about their weapons?” asked Ryder the AI, agitated.

“The colonists do not use these models. They come from elsewhere.”

Evfra was looking through the possession of one of the attackers when he found an almost undamaged datapad. He shook the snow and ashes off of it and held it out to the Pathfinder.

“Ryder, take a look at this.”

“Is it… kett?” Ryder scanned the datapad just to be sure, although he could already recognize those scribbles. “It’s encrypted. SAM, can you decode it?”

“Yes, Pathfinder. I would need a few minutes to do that.”

Ryder’s worries grew bigger and bigger starting from the minute he read Evfra’s email on his terminal on the Tempest. Worse than human colonists attacking the Resistance Base could be only human colonists affiliated with the kett.

“Hey, human,” Evfra addressed James after watching him struggling with himself for a minute or so, “do not lose hope yet. The attempt was too disorganized. I don’t think your people are planning a conspiracy against angara. Although, if we presumed that you were the one responsible for it, then all the sloppiness would be justified, and we should lock you up.”

Jaal chuckled softly. For somebody whose people have recently been attacked, both Jaal and Evfra seemed a little bit too carefree.

Soon SAM’s voice distracted Ryder from his thoughts and brought back to the real world.

“Pathfinder, I have decrypted the data. This datapad appears to hold the plans regarding the attack. It also includes the navpoints as well as the layouts of the angaran Resistance Base on Voeld as well as for the human colony Taerve Uni.”

The details SAM discovered didn’t quite fit into the picture in general, so Jaal said aloud what, perhaps, most of those who gathered there were concerned about.

“I do not understand why the colonists would need the navpoints for these locations. If they live on Voeld, they should know where the Base is situated since they cooperate tightly with the Resistance.”

Ryder was barely listening. He couldn’t apprehend that somebody on his side would commit such a treachery so he decided to get to know the truth, whatever the cost. He used his omni-tool to get in touch with the Tempest.

“Suvi, contact Priya Blake and ask her about the missing clothes and supplies. I want to know everything. Also check where one can find these weapons. I’m sending the scans.”

“Will do,” calmly answered Suvi without asking any additional questions.  

“Let’s get back inside. I’ve heard humans don’t perform very well in the cold,” rather stated than offered Evfra and headed back into the building.

James silently agreed and followed. On their way inside, Jaal approached him, worried about his reaction to the events.

“Evfra is right. You should not lose hope, Ryder. Anything is possible, especially if the kett are involved. And you shouldn’t forget that he also will not abandon attempts to establish beneficial cooperation between our species that easily. Even though he tries to pretend that he will.”

Ryder simply nodded in response.

“Do all humans value our alliance as much as you do, Pathfinder?” asked Evfra inside the hideout, already nestling beside a specially constructed heater. His voice gave in his genuine interest.

“Frankly speaking, I have no idea. I just try to believe they do,” answered Ryder. He had not given it much thought previously.

“So, at the moment everything holds only on your initiative? In that case, I would really like to know about your motivation. Besides survival of the species.”

Ryder took some time to reflect on his own viewpoint. There weren’t any other species in the Andromeda galaxy with which his people could build an alliance, but it seemed to him that something made him feel a special kind of sympathy towards angara.

“You know, while on Aya, I met your chief astronomer, Maariko,” he said, confusing everybody as to how it related to Evfra’s questions. “He asked me to find several missing anagaran satellites. To cut the long story short, we found out that they were scavenged and taken to pieces by exiles from Kadara, and the team he sent to locate those satellites was vanquished. I wasn’t responsible for that, exiles aren’t part of the Nexus anymore, but still… When I told him what happened, he was so… disappointed. He was so enthusiastic about our people working together, but this news made him change so drastically. Seeing him like that made me feel the worst I have ever felt in my life,” he summed up. He sounded tired and upset having to recall this story.

Evfra wistfully hemmed. He took a seat on the chair at his desk and turned to face Ryder and Jaal.

“Is regret your driving force then? Do you do this only because you’re ashamed and want to prove that humans aren’t that bad?”

“I—”

“Evfra,” almost exclaimed Jaal, interrupting James with no remorse. “Ryder must not feel ashamed of what other humans do, the same way we are not ashamed of the deeds of Akksul and his kind. Every individual is responsible only for his own actions.”

“I see you two grew to understand each other quite well…” said Evfra and nodded to himself. “But it doesn’t matter. Your worries are groundless. I am not trying to offend the Pathfinder, Jaal. I just wanted to know what he thinks of the situation we’re in.”

Jaal’s courage and support inspired Ryder to be more confident and not to yield to Evfra’s provocations. No matter the obstacles he had to overcome, his purpose was true and he would stick to it till the end, even if everybody doubted him.

“I think that this newly established bond between our species is beneficial for everybody. It is not perfect, we still have lots of stuff to work on, sure. And this is why I will do my best. If we really are the ones to blame in this incident, I’ll pay the price and earn your forgiveness. That’s what I think,” he said, somehow making it sound as though he prepared this speech long ago.

“I can respect such an answer,” said Evfra approvingly.

Ryder’s omni-tool made a beeping sound letting him know that somebody was on the line.

“It’s Suvi,” stated James to inform everybody else in the room before turning on the public channel.

“Ryder, the supplies from Taerve Uni appear to have been stolen. The security footage shows a group of people entering the warehouse and taking some of the stuff. Presumably at that time one shuttle was stolen as well. Priya Blake says one of the colonists had to be helping the intruders since they weren’t able to find any other clues and all other footage appears to be corrupted.”

“Got it. What about the rifles?”

“They seem to implement some of non-Initiative technologies. Our best bet would be to say that they come from Kadara.”

“Exiles then,” said Jaal quietly to himself.

“Thanks for your help, Suvi,” said Ryder and turned off the communication device, not letting Suvi ask any questions about what was happening.

“I suggest we go to Kadara right away. We shouldn’t waste any time,” said Jaal.

“Yeah, I would also like to get things sorted out as soon as possible,” agreed James.

He tried to take this incident in all its seriousness. Even if it meant running from one planet to another in search of any bits of useful data. Besides, the possibility of exiles being responsible for the offense gave him courage. Believing that the colonists had barely anything to do with the incident was all that kept him going.

“There is no need to do that. I will reach out to my agents in the port immediately and let you know once they discover anything important,” suggested Evfra.

His proposal looked like a real gesture of goodwill. Even though it was a little suspicious of him to make the life of the Pathfinder easier instead of complicating it, Ryder didn’t feel like refusing.

“That would be really convenient. We will stay on the Voeld’s orbit for now then. Are you going to come back to Aya?”

“No, not now. I’ll stay here until we clarify everything. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something else. Do you have a minute?” asked Evfra mysteriously. Ryder could not even imagine what else he would want to discuss after the matter with the colonists was settled for the time being.

“I’ll return to the Tempest, you can take your time. Goodbye, Evfra,” said Jaal, retreating before he was asked to. He felt that he shouldn’t stay. Since Evfra wasn’t really mad, his job there was done, so he decided to return to the ship and give them some privacy.

After Jaal disappeared out of their sight, Evfra offered Ryder a seat. The surface of a chair was quite cold to the touch.

“As a matter of fact, I wanted to talk about Jaal,” began Evfra. “I’m glad he left without me having to ask him to do so.”

“Is something bothering you?”

“Not bothering, no. I am wondering how he’s doing on the Tempest.”

Evfra was not the type that would talk much and especially not the type that would uncover that he worried about someone. Seeing him being open about what he cared about made Ryder feel more at ease in his presence.

“Jaal has become a valuable member of our team. He always provides us with helpful insights in situations otherwise obscure to us as newcomers. And he’s a skillful fighter, what more could I ask for,” he replied happily. There really couldn’t be too much praise for Jaal after what he did to help them.

“Good. I want to make sure he doesn’t feel left out. After our experience with kett, it was very risky to let him go with an outsider.”

The moment James met Jaal, he immediately understood that this angara is one of the most adventurous and decisive aliens he had ever seen. Nonetheless, only weeks after did he realize how big of a step had his new teammate made in terms of changing angaran foreign policy. The kett were the only aliens they had met before and that contact certainly didn’t have any positive outcome.

“You don’t have to worry,” said Ryder, waving his hand nonchalantly. “I mean, cultural clashes are unavoidable, but nothing we cannot handle so far. The Tempest crew is as diverse as it can be, so he fits like a puzzle piece.”

“Keep it that way. Or I will be forced to retrieve him. He is still an important agent of the Resistance,” said Evfra in a serious tone, although not threatening. He admired Jaal as one of the best assets in his movement and, understandably, didn’t want to lose him.

“I don’t think you will be able to do that. He seems to enjoy being on the Tempest. And, at this point, I won’t let him go,” said the Pathfinder laughingly.

“Do you like him that much?” asked Evfra. From the tone of his voice or the look on his face it was difficult to determine if it was a serious question or not.

“Well, he is a great interlocutor,” began Ryder, not really knowing what exactly Evfra expected to hear. “Considering the fact that he doesn’t know much about our customs and habits, he holds himself pretty well. Also, the female part of the crew seems to be fond of him. Especially the female part. And Liam. For some reason.”

The expression on Evfra’s face was one of confusion and incomprehension mixed together. Hearing this was definitely not something he anticipated.

“Are you saying that they are attracted to him?” he inquired in an attempt to define what Ryder meant.

“Kind of. Nothing serious, I’m sure, but he knows what to say and not say. Albeit I start doubting that when he opens a discussion about how asari reproduce. That is uncomfortable.”  Ryder bit his lip looking blankly at the snowy floor beneath him and thinking of how to continue the conversation. “Anywa-a-ay,” he began in a sing-song voice, seemingly having come up with something else worth noting, “coming back to his positive sides, he smells really nice. You also smell nice, by the way. I mean… not that I’m sniffing,”—he rubbed his neck like he usually did when he was nervous—“probably, it’s because of the lotion. Or something else. Jaal told that angara use lots of different self-care thingies, a-and I probably should stop talking about that already, shouldn’t I..?”

Evfra did his best not to bury his face in his palms because of how uncomfortable he was. There was always this moment during his conversations with Ryder when he just didn’t know how to react. He thought that if all humans were so perplexing and held so little control over their emotions, communicating with them on a daily basis must have been a real pain.

“You say your crewmates are discussing ways of reproduction,”—he tried to skip the embarrassing bits of the conversation and get to what really interested him—“I recon Milky Way settlers don’t know much about angara. We are not used to affairs with other species. Isn’t it too early to talk about such matters?”

“Humans discovered the intergalactic community less than 30 years ago and… well, plus 600 years we spent to get here, but let’s disregard that for now. All I’m saying is it didn’t take us long to fully adapt. Even though previously we too thought we were alone in the world. And, dare I add, our first contact with an alien race developed into a 3-month war. At least you’re not willing to fight us just ‘cause you don’t like us,” said Ryder without giving it much thought. Evfra was quite surprised at how confident the Pathfinder was in his words, almost as if he had previously considered this problem.

“Then that is your standpoint. I see,” replied Evfra and crossed his legs. For James it looked a bit weird considering angaran anatomy, but he tried not to stare. It was already awkward enough.

“Back at the Milky Way there were some species not compatible with human physiology at all,” began Ryder again. “Having all kinds of strange tentacles and rows of sharp teeth. And the batarians… Just imagine something staring at you with four eyes”—James twitched sharply—“I still have chills. So, yeah, angara don’t seem as such a bad option to me.”

“But isn’t survival of your race a priority now? There is no future for you if you don’t create great families and develop a new community,” objected Evfra. However persuasive the Pathfinder was, some of his opinions just did not sound practical to Evfra.

“I look at how angara cherish every member of their huge families and I aspire for us to live that way. But you just cannot force yourself if you strive for something else. Or somebody else,” said James without prevaricating.

Evfra narrowed his eyes and started drumming his fingers on the desk.

“That’s an interesting thought to hear from a person holding a position like yours. I don’t think your superiors would like it.”

“Well, I’m my own person.” Ryder leaned on the back of his chair. It didn’t seem so cold anymore. “And I still don’t get paid for the job so the least they could do is letting me date who I want to.”

“Be careful, Ryder. Now you make it sound as if it never was about the choice of others but rather about your own decision regarding this issue,” warned him Evfra. Despite his serious tone, he had no intention of revealing what Ryder told him to anybody else.

“Even if it is, what’s then?”—James tilted his head to the left a little—“unions between separate individuals of our species would have a great influence on our affiliation in general. If we can feel sympathy towards each other, then we are not so different after all. Sometimes you have to sacrifice something to have something else instead.” He sighed and slightly disappointedly added, “and my genes aren’t special or anything, so the humanity won’t lose much.”

Evfra checked the time on the terminal on his desk. He then stood up, implicating that it was probably time to wrap up the talks.

“It’s already quite late so I won’t hold you here any longer, Pathfinder. Your crew has waited more than enough.”

“Guess you’re right.”

Ryder stood up as well and quickly adjusted weapons hanging on his leg and back.

“I’ll accompany you to the Tempest if you don’t mind,” said Evfra.

“Not at all. Sometimes I get lost in your caves here so it’s always nice to have somebody show me the way around.”

They exited the room and set off into the network of icy caves, filled with equipment and appliances belonging to Resistance as well as a great number of soldiers and researchers occupied with their individual tasks.

“When we first came to Voeld,” said Evfra, observing his people at work, “we didn’t bring much resources. It was difficult to operate here, so we thought using these caverns would be a good start. Later we were able to equip everything with necessary facilities and make life here more comfortable. It indeed goes to show how far the ability to use surroundings to your own benefit can bring you.”

“I think you did a really good job surviving here. Can’t imagine how difficult it had been before we activated the vault,” commented Ryder, sincerely amazed by the job that the Resistance did on Voeld.

“It was extremely cold. We couldn’t make ten steps from the heaters unless we had special equipment. But, perhaps, even worse than that was what the planet looked like. Deserted and dead-white. The kett were there somewhere, we knew it, but through blizzards and snowstorms it was impossible to see anything. Lots of soldiers couldn’t handle such desolation for long.”

Evfra looked thoughtful for a few moments. The topic of colonization of Voeld brought back some memories about how it used to be. One look at his scarred face was enough to understand that it was anything but simple.

“The cold here is still unbearable, but… I don’t think it looks that bad. The beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” mused Ryder.

“Is that another human saying?” asked Evfra curiously.

“Yes.” They’ve finally reached the exit from the cave. Ryder dreamily stared at the white sky almost melting together with white mountains and slopes. “It means that nothing is really objectively beautiful or hideous, it depends on your perspective. You just need to learn to see good in everything. Even if there isn’t much of it.”

“My dislike for Voeld mostly came from the fact that it was so different from my home. But now it is better. Now that you are here,” said Evfra casually.

Ryder abruptly turned his head, shifting his gaze from the sky to Evfra’s rigid face. He felt that he was blushing under his helmet because of how astonished he was. The words sounded dubious, not like something Evfra would say.

“I mean the human colony,” added Evfra calmly. “We are not alone on this planet anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” nodded Ryder and coughed awkwardly.

Barely noticeable notes of discontent in Ryder’s voice didn’t escape Evfra’s ears. It was strange to hear that, but he tried not to overthink. After all, it was impossible to know what humans had on their mind.

After a moment of puzzlement Ryder went on, “I’m also glad we’re not alone on Voeld. It would be a hell to maintain an outpost on such a secluded planet.”

“Yes, it would.”

They walked the trail to the landing area in silence. Frozen snow was creaking under their feet and dim lights that defined the way flickered through blizzard, hardly noticeable. Guards were on their duty, constantly checking the perimeter for potential intruders. Even though it wasn’t so cold anymore, they tried to keep close to the heaters and stayed mostly in pairs.

Approaching the Tempest, Ryder made the last attempt to heat up the conversation. He hated to leave things the way they were.

“So-o-o, do you want to know a strange fact about humans?” he asked, pretending like it was a perfectly normal thing to ask after not talking for five minutes.

“Why would I want to know that?” Evfra turned around and faced Ryder, baffled by the question.

“Jaal once asked Liam and I thought… It’s okay if you don’t, really.”

“Go ahead then,” said the angara. At the moment he did not really care much about knowing more about humans, but rather wished to hear what Ryder wanted to tell him so eagerly.

“When humans are on the last stages of freezing, they get naked.”

This time Evfra couldn’t keep himself from closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead for a few seconds, feeling weary and jaded. Communication with humans really did make him think harder than usually. His brain just couldn’t handle such pressure every time he tried to analyze what was really going on in their heads. Particularly it applied to Ryder.

“Well, anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing from you,” said the Pathfinder and got aboard the Tempest. Evfra stood outside for some time, thinking, before returning to the Base.

Surprisingly enough, nobody aboard the Tempest was mad at Ryder for not sharing the reason for their come. Kalo tried to complain about the Pathfinder not trusting his team, but it didn’t take long for him to accept the fact that Ryder just didn’t want them to worry about the whole case. They stayed on the orbit of Voeld in order to be able to get back to the planet as soon as possible in case the situation needed them to.

James talked to Vetra and Jaal, convincing them that Evfra really didn’t say anything offensive and really didn’t threaten him. Hardly did they believe him when Ryder said, that the leader of the Resistance just inquired about the whole air aboard his ship. Realizing he would probably not say much else, they left Ryder alone.

The day went on with nothing noteworthy. Drowning in different reports from colonies and the Nexus, Ryder didn’t pay attention to the passing of time and soon found himself the only one staying awake. He was exhausted because of all the anxiety and jitters he had to experience today, so calling it a day didn’t seem to be a bad option. Although it took him some time to fall asleep because of all his spinning and turning in bed, he slept quite calmly and didn’t see any dreams.

He was woken up by SAM early in the morning.

“Pathfinder, you have new emails at your terminal.”

“Are they from Evfra?” asked Ryder, yawning.

“One of them,” answered SAM without getting into details.

James used to the terminal in his quarters to check the emails.

 Some info for the captain

To: Ryder

From: Reyes Vidal

Yesterday I got a task from Evfra (don’t worry, it’s not classified, I wouldn’t write you otherwise). As soon as I heard the details, I immediately knew it had something to do with you, so now you’re reading this.

It happened so, that a friend of mine wanted to take part in a shady venture. I, being a kindly person I am, told him not to. Some of his other friends weren’t as smart as him and didn’t listen to my advice, so they ended up dead in a stolen shuttle near the Resistance Base on Voeld. Do you follow me? I hope so, because it seems like if it hadn’t been for me, more exiles would have attacked the angara pretending to be your people. And we all know where that could lead.

Now I hope you’ll acknowledge my assistance in this matter and pay me back for being this good of a friend and taking care of your image so professionally.

Let me know when you have a free minute to chat.

Reyes

 Ryder blinked a few times. His eyes hurt from starring at the terminal screen right after waking up.

“I think I’m now more confused than I was before if that makes sense,” he said rather to himself than to SAM. “Okay, let’s see what the second one has for us.”

 Update on Urgent Matter

To: Ryder

From: Evfra

I have some intel we were looking for. I recon Reyes is now writing an email to you as well. I couldn’t deny him the pleasure of doing that, but you can never be sure of what he is going to tell and what he isn’t, so I’m writing as promised.  

People who attacked our Base were indeed exiles from the Kadara port. They managed to get in contact with kett who saw a great opportunity to use them and had promised them power and resources in return for undertaking this offense. My assumption is that they wanted to disrupt the alliance between humans and angara by making it look like your people attacked mine. However, I think their commandos didn’t know about this plan. It looks too irresponsible and lacks elaboration.

Someone in Taerve Uni helped exiles get in and steal what they needed. Reyes mentioned one of them having a relative in the colony, so it’s best if you investigated this further.

Angara do not blame you for what happened. Some of them feel for you and send their support.

In case you need me, I’ll be on Aya. I am flying back today.

I am glad there is no reason for us to be at war.

 “Somehow, imagining his face while he writes it makes it sound even better,” mumbled Ryder to himself and closed the email. He was too sleepy to be able to answer it properly right now.

[theblackrivergame]

I read back through and realized you said Bioware games in general, but I'm still very interested in who they would romance (I have ME on the brain right now because of the remaster)

(For context here anon sent a previous message just saying they were curious about the Mass Effect stuff I mentioned)

No worries, anon! I totally understand Mass Effect being on the brain at all times lmfao. As I said this will be pretty long so I’ll put it under the cut; also to clarify for ease-of-use purposes all of the Bioware characters are bi except for the ones who are confirmed gay, and there’s an enby play-gender option XD

Annos – Mass Effect Trilogy: Garrus. Yes, even in ME1. Accept no substitutes. Dragon Age Origins: Alistair. Dragon Age 2: Isabela. Dragon Age Inquisition: Dorian… although he remains deeply committed to Alistair. Mass Effect Andromeda: Gil, in some parallel dimension where his romance wasn’t hijacked by Jill.

Gervaise – Mass Effect Trilogy: Liara, all the way through… although if Legion was available they’d probably have switched to him. Dragon Age Origins: Leliana. Dragon Age 2: Fenris. Dragon Age Inquisition: Blackwall. Mass Effect Andromeda: Entirely swept off their feet by Reyes. Whoever they originally intended to romance was completely forgotten once they met him.

Ia – Mass Effect Trilogy: Ash, followed by Garrus. Dragon Age Origins: Zevran, every single time. Dragon Age 2: Isabela or Anders, depending on their class choice. Dragon Age Inquisition: The Iron Bull, or sometimes Solas if they’re feeling melodramatic. Mass Effect Andromeda: Liam or Peebee, they like both.

Kebisa – Mass Effect Trilogy: Kaidan, all the way through. Dragon Age Origins: she deliberately plays a Cousland rogue specifically so that she can romance Alistair and be his queen. Dragon Age 2: Merrill. Dragon Age Inquisition: Josephine, without a doubt. Mass Effect Andromeda: Vetra, although she shares my fondness for Sarissa Theris.

Namsun – Mass Effect Trilogy: Tali, though they romanced Liara in ME1. Dragon Age Origins: they play an Aeducan dwarf in a relationship with Gorim and go back to him at the end. Dragon Age 2: Merrill. Dragon Age Inquisition: they originally fell for Solas and ended up getting mad later and reloading to romance Cassandra instead. Mass Effect Andromeda: I’m going to say that they spend the whole game pining after Evfra… just like me. Though they really like Vetra and Jaal… sometimes it’s just hard to find a Perfect Fit though.

Our Lady – Mass Effect Trilogy: Liara in ME1, followed by an abrupt switch to Miranda for ME2 and 3. Dragon Age Origins: Zevran or Morrigan. Dragon Age 2: Fenris. Dragon Age Inquisition: she joins me in being deeply upset by the fact that Abelas isn’t romanceable, but will settle for Blackwall or Cassandra. Mass Effect Andromeda: Suvi.

Tehemia – Mass Effect Trilogy: Thane, although they also really like Samara. They’re miffed that neither is a proper romance choice for ME3. Dragon Age Origins: Zevran or Leliana depending on their mood. But also Tamlen. Dragon Age 2: Isabela. Dragon Age Inquisition: Cassandra or Sera. Mass Effect Andromeda: Jaal 100%.

Vanator – Mass Effect Trilogy: He probably romanced Kaidan in ME1 but he switched to Jack without a moment’s hesitation the second he met her. Dragon Age Origins: Zevran. Dragon Age 2: Fenris. Dragon Age Inquisition: He oscillates between Dorian and Cullen. Mass Effect Andromeda: Vetra, but he would switch to Evfra or Kandros if either was available (also like me).

Now, obviously the aro and aroace characters are slightly different. I know that aro people irl sometimes play through the romance mechanics of games for any number of reasons, but when we’re talking strictly about who the ROs WANT to romance, the answer for aromantic people is clearly nobody. While both series do have some non-romantic 18+ scenes that the alloaro characters (Barthelemy and Luminita) would probably participate in, those scenes can skirt the boundary of leading into a romance sometimes, so for all the aro characters I’ll instead give their favourite characters and people that they like to have in their squad.

Barthelemy - Mass Effect Trilogy: Wrex and Grunt. Even Wreav in some playthroughs. He just likes the krogan. Dragon Age Origins: he takes the mabari everywhere with him to cut down on chatter. Dragon Age 2: Varric managed to crack his shell and become his best bud. Dragon Age Inquisition: Varric again, but he also thinks Vivienne is the best thing since sliced bread. He especially likes the parts where she gives Solas shit for things. Mass Effect Andromeda: Drack, of course.

Dassine - Mass Effect Trilogy: She loves Kasumi and Samara, but wherever possible she meticulously balances her party in terms of power for each particular mission. Dragon Age Origins: She LOVES the mabari, but she also likes Morrigan and Leliana. Dragon Age 2: depends on her class; she programs in very specific tactics with special exploits set up based on who she takes with her. Her favourites are Merrill and Bethany, though. Dragon Age Inquisition: She loves Vivienne, as well as Cole and Cassandra. Mass Effect Andromeda: Drack and Jaal are her favourites.

Luminita - Mass Effect Trilogy: She’s absolutely ride-or-die best friends with Garrus and Tali. All the way, every single game. Dragon Age Origins: she switches around a lot, but she thinks Leliana and Sten are the most reliable for gameplay advantages (Leliana can actually open locks). Dragon Age 2: She likes Fenris and Varric, but enjoys Aveline’s aesthetic. Dragon Age Inquisition: Best friends with Cassandra. Has heard from someone there might be other characters, but can’t personally confirm. Mass Effect Andromeda: Cora and Vetra.

Soillere - Mass Effect Trilogy: he wanted to keep both Ash and Kaidan forever and was gutted in ME1 when he had to leave one behind; Garrus took Kaidan’s place in his squad after that. Dragon Age Origins: it’s him, Alistair, a drunken dwarf and a dog against the world! Dragon Age 2: he swaps around a LOT to avoid conflict, but his favourite is Varric. Dragon Age Inquisition: He likes to have Dorian and Blackwall with him, but he loves Sera too. Mass Effect Andromeda: Drack and Liam. Liam’s upside-down loyalty quest was his favourite part of the game... he loves Reyes too though.

[wickedwitchofthewilds]

WIP Wednesday: Between, way, around, tonight

Thank you! <3

Between:

Makenna stood from the chair, facing him. Her robe was only loosely tied. The open fabric dipped between her breasts. His eyes followed the trail of bare skin. The fabric stopped just below her knee. It hitched upward as she stepped towards him, revealing one of the leather straps. He swallowed hard.

The strap was a reminder of what was underneath her robe.

Way:

She could feel it. The way it buzzed over her skin. The many points it was tethered—anchored—to her being. Knowing it was there wasn’t the problem. It was using it. Sometimes it wasn’t enough, sometimes it was too much. Each time she failed was disappointing.

“You’re spiraling,” Jaal said.

Emma grimaced. She was a walking broadcast. They knew something was wrong before she ever vocalized it, but she couldn’t do the same for them.

“What are you afraid of?” Evfra asked. “Failure?”

Around:

“Here?” he asked, his voice strained.

“Do you not want me to?” she asked, pausing.

Solas cleared this throat again, eyes moving between her and the door. His fingers tightened around the arms of the chair. “I do,” he admitted.

Tonight:

“How long it’s going to take you to leave or slip away for five minutes,” Emma answered. “Jaal thinks you’re going to leave early, but I don’t think you’ll even wait that long.”

So-Hee scoffed. “What if we do neither?” she asked.

“Then I will be very surprised,” Emma muttered. “And wonder if that alcove right outside the door to the right will get any use tonight.”

“I think you two are going to be very disappointed,” So-Hee said, but her mind was already turning towards the alcove. Would it be private enough? She shook her head. No. She could wait. The party couldn’t possibly go on for much longer.

[bluesunsdusk]

Just gonna answer asks from this meme 

if you have a ‘main muse’, who besides them do you think could be your main muse?

Roland or Sigma, in all honesty. Roland can be so loud when he is active that he just puts everyone else in the dugout. 

is there a muse you write a lot that you’re tired of writing?

Whenever Sigma goes on hiatus, yes. 

is there a muse you never write, but want to write more?

Andoris and Breige. 

how many muses did you have when you started your blog? how many do you have now?

This blog specifically? I think eight or so. Maybe ten. It was a Mass Effect blog I ended up never using.

what are your criteria for adding new muses?

Do I want to? 

what’s the max amount of muses you’re willing to have at one time?

I don’t know.

have you ever dropped muses from your blog? if so, were there any you dropped but brought back later?

Yes. I Think I have dropped Nihlus, Merhunes Dagon, Sanguine, X3-28, Lucius, Nadine, etc. Though not all of them were dropped from this blog.

do you have a muse who is a terrible person, but very fun to write?

Um... See, I thought Roland, but he isn’t actually terrible. Set. Set is terrible.  

which of your muses do you find the most difficult to get down correctly?

At times, Sigma. I am, as you may have noticed, not an astrophysicist and I do not consume the same media he would as much as some people I know. Also, unlike with other people, I need to keep Dutchisms in mind considering his word usage to make it seem more authentic. Then we have Mamun, for whom I need to do cultural research for a culture I am not a part of.

how upset do you get when someone doesn’t specify muse?

Kind of annoyed tbh when people do it often or several people do it. Not always, but it’s not hard to tell me who you want to interact with. When you don’t while I am not close with you, and you do it consistently, you just come off as either lazy or apathetic, like you didn’t even bother to know which muses I have or you just stopped caring. This is a multimuse. Everyone who follows this blog knows that, or should, at least try to make it easier for me by actually telling me what you want. It’s not that hard. I don’t want to have to constantly ask people or guess what muse someone is trying to send asks for. 

With hc asks, it’s not so annoying, because I can just pick and choose who I want to answer with, but interaction prompts are so annoying without specification, especially when it’s something like a kissing prompt from someone I have never interacted with and it’s not specified and the blog doesn’t meet any of the requirements I have set forth. To be frank, I delete those asks, because it’s just plain rude. 

For people I do interact with, most specify muse, so I just ask who they meant to sent something in for. That, or I know them well enough to guess. Though, no one should assume that is the case. It’s always best to both specify that the ask is from you if you’re on anon, and for who the ask is, whether that be through names or descriptors in dialog or a small note.

if you could make a solo blog for any of your muses, who would it be?

Some already have or had solo blogs. These are: Set, King Logan, Sparrow, Magnus, Jyggalag, Mehrunes Dagon, Sanguine, Lluthren (though he is currently a hidden muse), Evfra, and Nihlus. 

which muse that you currently have was the first you ever roleplayed?

Sanguine, actually. He’s not very active, but I started him as an ask blog where I did sketch replies, but it evolved into rp.

what are some things you like about multis that solo blogs don’t offer? what about the other way around; are there things you like about solo blogs that you can’t apply to a multi?

Solo blogs are very straight forward. You like the muse and you follow. Now, you have the same with multimuses, in that you like one or more muses and you follow, though most feel it would be rude if they followed someone for just one muse and avoid doing it. However, more comes into play in that now you have choice. There’s so many muses to choose from, and that is great, and that is one of their strengths, because it adds flexibility and allows a blog to stay active even when one character has low muse, but it can be hard on days when I have no energy and I don’t want to be sending prompts to the same one or two characters all the time. 

That, and it can take longer to remember which options are available on each blog when they have as many muses as I do. Though, most have about six muses per fandom or so, which is easier to remember. 

Anyway, single muse is straightforward and have a nice focus to them, but a multimuse is like browsing a candy store and being overloaded with choices that you all like. 

which of your muses is the most friendly to strangers? which is the least friendly?

Least friendly would be Set. Then again... Could be hungerbitten Logan, seeing as he is rather skittish and might attack someone. No, it’s Set. 

The friendliest would be Enduril, Aidan (pre-Fable 3), and Mamun. 

who are you feeling the most muse for right now?

Right now? Roland, I guess. Warlock Sigma was a few days ago. 

who’s your default muse for new interactions?

I don’t really have one. It depends on the other person’s muse. With one, it might be Roland or Spigel, with another it might be Set. It depends on the fandom and setting, too. 

how often would you say you add new muses?

Every day. That’s why I have 365 muses. Jk. I had between the 40 and 50. I don’t know.

if you were to drop one muse from your current roster, which one would it be?

Nihlus, maybe?

what are some annoying things you have to deal with from others that solo blogs don’t?

Well, there was the aforementioned people not specifying for who an ask is far too often. Then there’s people who know this is an oc heavy blog and come here despite being “critical of ocs” because I have some canon muses on there. Though, that’s less down to being a multi and more down to being mixed between oc and canon. 

Another annoying thing is sorting. You need to do more effort to keep things orderly with multimuses. Tumblr fucks up tags and fancy tags will be lost and forgotten, especially when you have many muses, so I keep my tags as simple as possible. 

Sometimes, you have many things for one muse on the same blog, but then this other muse is the one being most active. 

There are also times when one muse’s personality or energy rubs off on another. I have had Roland’s chaotic energy rub off on Sigma numerous times. Sigma just feels the zoomies and is like aight. 

which of your muses is the most responsive to crack interactions or dash fuckery?

Roland or Spigel. 

[fromathelastoveritaserum]

WIP Monday!

Thank you for the tag @chyrstis ! ٩(⁎❛ᴗ❛⁎)۶ Now that I have time, I’m working on catching up with my three (maybe four) fanfictions! ...wait wha?! Why do I do this to myself?? (ಠ_ಠ)

Below are some sneak peeks at my work in progress:

“My Beloved Professor” - Ch20 - Fire Emblem Three Houses

“In Sickness & In Health” - Ch12 - Mass Effect Andromeda

“When Joy Returned” - Ch11 - Far Cry 5 

“My Beloved Professor” - Fire Emblem Three Houses

“Have you been living under a rock?” Catherine asked with a frown, before she added, “You probably have been huh. Well, there won’t be a trial. Lady Rhea's word is law. And as a Knight of Seiros, I’m going to make sure the deed is done.”

“Sounds more like a task for an executioner, rather than a knight,” Byleth remarked without emotion.

Catherine’s brow arched in response. “I’m loyal to Lady Rhea through and through,” she stated  gruffly as her posture straighten proudly upon the saddle.

Ashe shifted uncomfortably in his saddle as he remained quiet. His lime green eyes snuck a glance towards Dimitri, who seemed to be sharing his thoughts; an odd power shift was at play here. 

“A blind man who questions the use of his sword is less dangerous than a man who uses his sword blindly,” Byleth quipped as she kept her gaze straight ahead.

Catherine huffed in response. “And which high and mighty person uttered that?” 

“My father,” Byleth simply remarked.

“Well, we have our mission...be sure to stick to it Professor. I don’t want any insubordination. Got it,” Catherine stated, her bright sapphire eyes now narrowed upon the young woman riding next to her.

Finally, Byleth tore her gaze away from the road to looked directly at Catherine. Face as still as a mask, she merely gave the swordswoman a solemn nod.

‘Damn, I can’t get a read on her,’ Catherine thought with gritted teeth. “Good,” she remarked out loud. Though knight had an inkling she would have to keep a wary eye on the professor.

“In Sickness & In Health” - Mass Effect Andromeda 

“And this is the Medbay,” Sara proudly announced as she lead Evfra into the clean and polished clinical area. “Though, you’ve already been here huh,” the young woman realized as she pursed her lips into a soured expression.

“Yes, he has,” Stated Lexi, in a tone that was a more cooler than what Sara would have expected from the gentle doctor. There was also a foreboding gleam in the Asari’s eyes. The Pathfinder knew that look all to well when she ended up in the Medbay after doing something Lexi had explicitly forbade the Pathfinder from doing.

“I remember General de Tershaav very well, especially on the day he brought you in when you were suffering from hypoglycemia,” Lexi recounted with a pencil thin smile.

“Wait Evfra, you brought me to the Tempest?” Last thing Sara could recall from that mission, was Akksul helping her walk!

Meanwhile Evfra just gave a noncommittal cough for he did not like where this was heading…

“In fact, I remember the General asking me, quite bluntly, whether I was qualified to take care of humans,” Lexi smiled. But, it was the razor thin smile she wore upon choosing the largest sized needle to inject you with. “I must say he made taking care of you quite the challenge. Constantly hovering over you to the point that I had to kindly request the General to step out,” the Asari added, her grey eyes gleaming with the joy of payback.

“You had to kick Evfra out of the medbay while I was being treated?” Sara gawked. She glanced from the Asari towards the Angara who refuse to make eye contact. Ryder’s mouth then snapped shut as she hissed, “I see.” And without another word, the young woman dragged Evfra by the hand out of the Medbay.

She was silent the entire way to her cabin, and Evfra became worried that the Pathfinder was upset with him. Not only had he not disclosed that event to her, but the leader had clearly obstructed the physician from properly taking care of Sara.

“SAM open this door right now” Sara commanded in a forceful voice. As the doors whoosed open, the young woman tugged Evfra in before barking, “No one is allowed to enter! And go on privacy mode!”

Finally the Pathfinder relinquished the angara’s hand. “Sara are you upse…” Evfra began, but he didn’t get to finish his sentence as the young woman raised her toes, pulling Evfra down to her by the scruff of his tactical suit.

“Shut up and kiss me!” She growled throatily before pressing her warm lips upon his gawking mouth...

“When Joy Returned” - Far Cry 5

The heavily wooded forest allowed some sunlight to peek in through its lush canopy. Down below, the smell of damp earth now mixed with the invigorating crispness of spring.

“Joy! Please slow down!” Joseph pleaded breathlessly as he carefully made his way around the large jutting stone maze of the underbrush. The teenager was clearly not used to such activities. Meanwhile, Joy skimmed along the mountainous trail like a jubilant billy goat.

The pair were taking a trip through the Whitetail Mountains as a part of filling out their high school biology field notebooks. The requirement was to sketch various springtime fauna and flora spotted along the trails.

“Come on Joe, come on! It’s just a bit further!” Joy cheered in her seemingly unending energy reserve. She climbed up the stones with ease before turning around and reaching back down to aid Joseph

“Here give me your hand,” Joy offered. But when Joseph lifted his hand up to her, Joy accidently grabbed his mid-forearm, eliciting a cry of pain from the teenager.

Quickly Joy released his arm, worried she had hurt her friend. And as she did so, Joseph’s sleeve slipped down, revealing large purple to yellow blotches of discolored skin.

“Joe...” she gasped. “What are those on your arms?” Joy whispered as she stared, wide eyed down at him.

Joseph quickly pushed his sleeve back down his arm as he looked silently away.

“Are those bruises?” Joy asked softly. “Joe...who is hurting you?”

She remembered that Jacob was Joseph’s older brother and the new worker at the Owens Ranch. But, while she was still just getting to know Jacob, he seemed to love his brothers dearly and wouldn’t lay a finger upon them. Then there was John, the youngest Seed. Gods, Johnny was a little angel who wouldn’t even hurt a fly. Actually he began to tear up after nearly killing one!

“It’s...it’s okay Joy, don’t worry about it,” Joseph gently remarked as he heard Joy shift about overhead on the boulder.

“But...” Joy paused. “Alright, I won’t ask...but Joe,” she stretched down her hand to help Joseph properly up the boulder this time. However, she didn’t let go of his hand even once Joseph was standing up on the boulder in front of her.

How do you convey feelings of utmost trust? Within the few short months Joy felt she already knew Joseph for a lifetime, as if they were just old souls reuniting once again in this time period...

Silently Joy reached out to him with other hand and pressed her warm forehead against his as she closed her eyes. ‘You are precious to me,’ she tried to convey with her gesture. 

“Joe, if you ever need help or anything, please let me know,” Joy whispered.

“I will Joy, I promise,” Joseph whispered back as he returned the pressure upon her forehead, as if to say, you are precious to me too...

Tagging: @strafethesesinners @rpgwarrior4824 @angaranprincess @anavakarian (apologies for any double-tags and no pressure!)

And if you would like to be tagged in the future please let me know! :3

[seigephoenix]

Tagged by @briarfox13! Thanks for the tag!!!

Get to Know The Blogger

Three ships: THERE'S TOO MANY.  Here are the top 3 I will reread over and over again no matter what tho.

1. Aizawa x Reader

2. Ryder x Evfra

3. Trevelyan x Hawke

Last song: I was listening to Unforgettable by Godsmack

Last movie: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising

Currently reading (book): I haven't found a book I wanna pick up and read yet.  I've been rereading a bunch of my fav Nora Roberts books tho.

Currently reading (fanfic): Uhh.  A lot.  Mostly whatever oneshots I find by my fav blogs/authors!

Writing: Currently!!  My Black Emporium fic which is 80% done!  My BNHA Kinktober event!  And I'm posting a collab piece today!

Currently watching: Soul Eater, Haikyu, and catching up to the second season of Fire Force.

Currently playing: Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Currently consuming: Nothing.  My stomach's been off for a few days.

Currently craving: A sausage biscuit from a restaurant that shut down a few years ago.  I still miss it!!!

[avaquet]

Rydaal: Shedding Our Skin

Day 3 prompts! Late night rendezvous! This story is for MERweek, and takes place pre-relationship. :3

WARNING: Mentions of abuse!

I paced the Tempest, and I thought everyone was asleep, or piloting. We were headed back to Aya to reunite the Moshae with the angara. I jumped out of my skin when Jaal suddenly came out of his room. He shared the same response.

“I thought you were asleep.” We both said. Not in sync.

“I can’t.” I replied. “Been walking the ship for the past hour.”

“I was busy sending a report to Evfra. Came out to get a drink.” He cleared his throat. “Care to join?”

I shrugged. “Sure. I don’t have anything else to do anyways.” We walked together down to the kitchen.

He sat down next to me with his water. “I uh… I wanted to ask you a question, if you don’t mind.”

I chuckled. “I’m surprised your holding back.”

“Yes well, I also have to ask Evfra this, but I wanted your opinion on it first.”

“Ah, well, I’m listening.”

He smiled widely as he spoke. “I’ve come to enjoy being on the ship, with you and the crew. I was wondering if I may stay.”

“You don’t want to go back? Even...even after what you saw?”

“I want to stay. I feel important here, and we got many things accomplished. I feel like I’m not waiting on something to happen when I’m here. Also, the crew seems to enjoy my presence.”

I chuckled. “That they do, Jaal. I-the crew would love to see you stay, and you’re a kickass fighter. As long as it’s okay with Evfra, then we’d love to have you here.”

“What about you?” He took a drink.

“What about me?” I raised a brow.

“I want to know what you think about me staying. You are the one in charge.”

I scoffed, “Hardly.”

“Then let me rephrase. I care about what you think.” Jaal clarified.

That phrase oddly took me by surprise. I knew he was open about pretty much everything, but maybe it’s because I haven’t really heard that being said to me. I cleared my throat. “Um, well, yes. I really enjoy your presence here.” I smiled gently. “You’ve been a good friend to me so far, despite me being completely alien to you.”

“It nice to see that we can prove the bigots wrong. And myself.”

“What do you mean?”

He chuckled. “Ah, when I first met you, I wished they would’ve killed you. In truth, I was afraid we would have more opposition. I had only heard of what happened on Kadara, but I’ve never seen the Initiative species.”

“I’m surprised you volunteered to go with me then.”

“I’m not. Mainly because I noticed something that was extremely different in you, than the kett. And I wanted to see for myself if I could be hopeful.” He smiled.

“What was the difference? Other than we’re obviously better looking.” I joked.

“The way you showed your emotions. Kett have but one, dominance. They came confidently and asked for peace. Never said sorry, never seemed afraid. But you,” I scoffed and held back any more laughter as I remembered how I acted. “You were so afraid. You apologized for the way you landed. I...felt bad. Just a bit, I wasn’t sure if it was just an act. Then you pleaded Evfra for help.”

“So, you got hope out of my fear?” I grinned, not meaning it seriously.

Jaal shook his head, “Not exactly. But, if you were confident and careless, I may have been the one to plead Evfra to shoot you. Or permission to.”

“I literally dodged a bullet by being absolutely terrified. Ah, nice.” I gave out a dry chuckle.

He giggled with me, “I doubt they would’ve actually listened to me. Though, I am glad that I was proven wrong about you.”

“Hell, me too. I don’t want to be anything like a kett. Cold soulless bastards. Er, sorry.”

“For what? You didn’t make the kett. And I agree.” He had looked down for a moment then back up. “I have another thing to ask you.”

“Fire away.” Haha, fire away. After talking about getting shot. Hah…

“Did I make you uncomfortable on Voeld?”

I thought for a moment, “At first I felt weird, but I wasn’t going to complain. Voeld was a lot colder than any of us had prepared for.” Lexi had warned us, but like kids leaving the house in the middle of winter stating it is not that cold out, Mom, I’ll be fine! Off we went.

“Are you saying you got used to it?”

“Had to. Not that you’re uncomfortable or anything, in fact I think I rather enjoyed it. Though you gotta blame that one on me being utterly touch starved for like, months.” My face felt hot.

He cocked his head, “Are you...blushing?” I could see a small smile forming that made me feel funny.

There was an awkward pause of me thinking about how to respond. I cleared my throat, “Um, heh, yeah. Yeah I am. Just a… Just a bit.” I couldn’t look into his eyes. What in the hell is happening to me? I know what...just fucking why? Why now? Damn, this is so inappropriate. I’m like a captain of the ship and he’s a crew member. Except I’m not, and he’s technically not. He answers to Evfra, it’s just that Evfra tells him to listen to me. Ack, no no no no, you’re not feeling anything, Sara. You’re just touch starved and trying to trauma bond. This is just hormones. This shit will go away. Yeah but, this isn’t the first time I felt this. So? He’s spent his whole life fighting and killing aliens. Even if your feelings were true, do you honestly think he would reciprocate them? Could his brain have the wirings to feel any ounce of attraction towards you? An alien? Again, he fought and despised aliens his whole life. Him being your friend should be good enough is it not, Sara? Just accept it.

“Do humans really closet their emotions that much?” His voice broke my thoughts. “If you liked something just say it. What harm will it do to let others know that you enjoy something?”

“It’s ah, cultural thing. Usually people don’t sleep together unless they’re well...together. With the exception of children and their parents. Humans for some reason have to see literally everything as something sexual or romantic, because apparently plantonic doesn’t exist.” I mocked. “It’s stupid, really.”

It took him a moment to respond, “Was that why it was uncomfortable for you at first?”

I nodded, “Yeah. Society ingrained itself into my head, and I want it out. It would be wildly inappropriate for me to have that sort of feelings for you.”

He shrugged, “And why is that?”

“It would be like a co-worker getting with their boss.”

“So? Is that not allowed?”

What? “Wait, you’re telling me, it is allowed in your culture?” He nodded. “Doesn’t that cause like, biased or opinionated ah, um, things to happen? Like who’s in charge of what or where?”

“That happens anyways, does it not? Your feelings don’t simply go away when you ignore them. They’re stored. The only way to deal with them is by acknowledging them and getting them out. If you romantically like someone, you will still make decisions that show that. Same thing with family or friends.” He clarified.

“Aren’t there any problems with this? Like if a boss was with a worker and the boss made them a manager just because they favor them and not for their abilities?”

“Even though your culture sees it as inappropriate, does it stop what you’re describing?” I shook my head. “Making someone in charge because you like them, is wrong. No matter what. It hurts many many things. But people are charged by emotions anyways, ignoring them will not make a difference. Usually it makes things worse.”

“If word got around, people would usually fire the boss for even thinking about it.”

“That’s idiotic. Fire the boss if the boss abuses their power and puts someone in charge that doesn’t qualify. Don’t fire the boss for simply being a person.” He retorted.

“Our ideology comes from the fear of people acting out their emotions. Humans go to the extreme a lot, so we feel that ignoring these emotions will be the best.”

He seemed confused, “Ah, could you elaborate?”

“It’s not uncommon for...let’s say a boss who likes their worker, to try and have sex with them because of how they feel. And because they are the boss, they use that position to try and sorta order them or blackmail them to have sex with them.”

He had the most disgusted look on his face. “Not that that ever happens in our society, because it has. But that is absolutely outrageous and sickening. Abusive bosses should be fired. Don’t restrict others to being mere...robots because you refuse to fire a horrible boss.”

“But yeah. That’s where that stems from. Humans cannot handle their emotions.”

“Because you never deal with them.” Jaal seemed frustrated. “You’ve never learned how to properly work with them. For angara, this is taught from birth. It’s not perfect, but at least very few of us are emotionally repressed.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make things frustrating for you.”

“I imagine it must be frustrating for you because you have to live in it constantly.”

I nodded, “Yeah. A bit.”

He let out a frustrated grunt. “No wonder...have I made your crew uncomfortable by...being the way I am? So open?”

“A little, yeah. But they sorta figured out it was part of your culture anyways.”

“Doesn’t excuse it. So, all the compliments I gave...they weren’t received as platonic, were they?”

“I cannot speak for everyone, but the consensus seems to be that no, they weren’t. And even if they were, it took everyone by surprise.”

He buried his head in his hands. “I’m...so sorry. I...I should’ve thought better.”

I reached out to his shoulder, “Hey, it’s okay. I believe we understand now. All first contact is awkward for a while. We’re just getting used to each other.”

He relaxed and looked at me, “Thank you. I will watch what I say.”

I sat back, “Oh pfft. Don’t. I love it when you compliment us. Or, we love it, anyways. Heh. Just...continue being you. We love it. I think your personality is much needed in times like this. And, maybe you could teach us a thing or two about dealing with our emotions.”

He smiled, “Maybe. I’m not sure how good of a teacher I will be, but I can do my best. Thank you, Sara.”

I bowed my head, “It’s not a problem. In fact it’s relieving to be around you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You’re contagious like that. Since you’re so open, I feel like I can be open and comfortable around you, too. I’m not going to complain.”

“I’m glad I have that effect. I don’t complain when I’m around you either.” He smirked. Is he..?

“Hah, careful. I already like you, you don’t want me to end up liking you or- wait. No, that’s not.” My face got hot again and then I was the one with the buried face. “I don’t understand words.” I could hear him chuckle.

“Hmm… I’ll have to think on that.”

[tallgrassstore]

I’ve decided to do the weekly updates on Monday, now, to actually encompass the whole previous week, as sometimes it would cut off too early on Sunday when I would still be working on something. So, let’s have Weekly Update #109!

Last week 3 more amigurumi friends were made, starting off with some Pokemon we hadn’t seen in a long time - Litten from the Alola region, and the Pokemon everyone knows, Pikachu! The rest of the crochet week was taken over by an XL sized amigurumi of Evfra from Mass Effect Andromeda!

Over on clay side, a little Niffler necklace pendant was born along with my first ever female Troll character model from World of Warcraft! I’m still open to taking new character model orders, but after another week or so. Feel welcome to discuss them with me before then, though!

Reminder that next Friday, July 27th at 7pm EST I’ll be taking a new batch of amigurumi orders! As previously mentioned, there will be NO custom slots this time around, all 10 slots will be for made to order amigurumi only. You can find a full list of over 90 amigurumi options (a long with prices) here: https://www.deviantart.com/tallgrassart/journal/Complete-List-of-all-Made-To-Order-Amigurumi-740606891

That’s all for now, and if you have any questions or want to see more of my work, be sure to head over to TheTallGrass.etsy.com!

More useful links: Follow me on DeviantArt: http://TallGrassArt.deviantart.com/ Daily updates on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetallgrass/ Support new Amigurumi: https://ko-fi.com/TheTallGrass

[hotwing-sauce]

This fic is rated E for Explicit This fic is set in a Naga!AU

Ryder gets ambushed by a set of men whom have less than honourable intentions; she isn't sure she can take them, but it turns out she doesn't have too. After all, Evfra's a lot scarier than her.

Please, please consider supporting me on patreon, or giving me a tip here, at my ko-fi. Thank you!!! <3 <3

[nerdierholler]

My Mass Effect OCs

Doing a little housekeeping so here’s a quick reference to some of my OCs. Feel free to ask or send prompts about them. As a note, my Ryders aren’t as developed as my Shepard is, but feel free to ask about them too.

Jane Marie Shepard (tumblr posts) Paragon/Renegade: Paragade Class: Soldier Background: Colonist/War Hero Romance: ME1 - Kaidan, ME2 & 3 - Garrus Other Info: Goes by Marie or Mare. Develops a drinking problem at the beginning of ME2, Chakwas and Garrus have an intervention after Horizon. After Garrus, her best friend is Thane. He helps her accept dying and being brought back. Totally has a happy ending AU where she and Garrus retire to somewhere nice a tropical.

Zoe Ryder (tumblr posts) Primary Skills: Overload, Incinerate Favorite Profile: Infiltrator Training: Technician Age: 22 Romance: Jaal Other Info: Pink hair, sunshine and sarcasm. She’s trying to hold everything together with a joke and a smile. Zoe was my first Ryder when the game came out.

Izzy Ryder (tumblr posts) Primary Skills: Charge, shotgun, Favorite Profile: Vanguard Training: Scrapper Age: 26 Romance: Liam Other Info: Based on some ideas I had for a Ryder pre-release. A little older than canon, she’s the black sheep of the twins, more rebellious than Scott. She was more interested in her studies (classical studies and mythologies) than being a soldier. Joined the Initiative to be with her family, the official reason is that she would be useful in studying and interpreting new cultures or ruins. She can be impulsive and tends the act first and think later. Basically her and Liam together are trouble, fun trouble though if that’s your thing.

Nora Hoshi Hana and Taavet (Taavi) Vesa (tumblr posts, AO3)

My human sentinel and angara insurgent multiplayer OCs.

Taavet's a grumpy introvert sent by Evfra to help APEX. Nora's a demisexual, extroverted nervous talker who's new to the whole fighting thing. Eventually there’s romance, but they take things slow at Nora’s request. Mostly a series of prompt fills for these two but I’d love to get back to writing them at some point.

[xxleondraxx]

Just wanted to say, I love your Evfra headcanons. especially the one about his age. I know there's that 'old man' line from Vehn, but I think a lot of people take that too literally. He seems young as is, maybe 20's? - or the Angaran equivalent. When I was in my 20's, anyone older than thirty was ancient. But anyway, I just wanted to say, I really enjoy seeing your thoughts on Evfra. He really was one of the best characters in Andromeda. I wish they'd have given him a bigger role

Awe, thank you so much! :3

As for his age, I heard that line from Vehn to and to me it didn’t sound like old as in ‘geezer’ old. Like you, I though of Vehn as more Jaal’s age, perhaps younger, and when you’re young and stupid anyone more than 15 years older than you is old xD But even before Vehn I always kinda felt like Evfra was more in his 40’s. Timeline wise it makes sense to me too, since he’s been leading the Resistance for 10 years, which would have put him at 32 when he took over. Or at least he lost his family 10 years ago. Suppose by angara standards he could still be in 50s or 60s but…. eeeehhhh. Just doesn’t seem that way to me. 40’s feels right to me.

And I agree in wishing Evfra should have been given a bigger role. I mean, in all seriousness, Evfra is probably THE MOST important angara in the Helius cluster. He’s the one that pulled the Resistance together and gave the angara an actual focused, fighting chance against the kett. Were it not for him… hell. All the angara may have been exalted by now. There might hardly be any left. Aya as we know it might not exist. Granted Paaran is a good political and social leader and everyone loves the Moshae, but it’s hard to look at the angara based on their known actions and say that any of them have done as much as Evfra.

And he’s been getting results, too. Guy isn’t just punching in the dark. Hell, if it wasn’t for him, Ryder probably would have never met Jaal since he might be dead or have never existed because his parents were dead or never met because of the largely unchecked kett presence.

It’s a damn shame that they didn’t have more Evfra focus, and even worse is the strange little things I’ve seen here and there that suggest that they might have cut some Evfra content from the game entirely.

But I digress. I love Evfra, I love doing theories and headcanons about him, and I love that you enjoy my inane ramblings about this fictional blue alien man. So thank you :D

[spectre-requisitions-exchange]

Statistics for this year’s exchange

Greetings, everyone! With this year’s exchange complete with 155 glorious fics (go read some of them, if you haven’t already), it’s time for a look at the most popular relationships and characters. These will be Top 5 lists, unless there’s a tie that necessitates going past 5.

Relationships

Most Popular Overall

Tiran Kandros/Female Ryder -- 10 stories

Female Shepard/James Vega -- 7 stories

Harry Carlyle/Female Ryder -- 7 stories

Kaetus/Sloane Kelly -- 6 stories

Evfra de Tershaav/Female Ryder -- 5 stories

The Andromeda ships dominated the most popular list, with the exception of FShega (on its last year of eligibility). They were also all heterosexual ‘ships, so the “overall” list also serves as the “het” list.

Most Popular - F/F

Female Shepard/Ashley Williams -- 4 stories

Female Shepard/Samantha Traynor -- 4 stories

Female Shepard/Jack -- 4 stories

Cora Harper/Female Ryder -- 3 stories

Female Shepard/Aria T’Loak -- 3 stories

The ladies of the trilogy took the lead here. FemShep/Aria made this a top 5 with two last-minute treats, because there were an absolute ton of two story f/f ‘ships.

Most Popular - M/M

Garrus Vakarian/Zaeed Massani -- 3 stories

Bain Massani/Reyes Vidal -- 2 stories

Gil Brodie/Kallo Jath -- 2 stories

Saren Arterius/Nihlus Kryik -- 2 stories

Steve Cortez/James Vega -- 2 stories

Steven Hackett/Zaeed Massani -- 2 stories

The Massanis had a very strong showing here. Vaksani is one of the big winners of this exchange, since only one person requested it (and got 3 stories!). Notably absent is MShep and MRyder.

The rest of the lists serve as both the “most popular” and “what got written”, because there weren’t nearly as many in these categories.

Gen

Female Shepard & Urz -- 2 stories

Mordin Solus & Eve -- 1 story

Multi

Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard/James Vega -- 3 stories

Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard/James Vega -- 3 stories

Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian/Tali’Zorah -- 2 stories

Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard/Ashley Williams -- 2 stories

Two categories where only trilogy ships showed up. Kaidan dominated the multi stories, with Vega hot on his heels. 

Other

Female Ryder/SAM -- 2 stories

Peebee/Tentacle Monster -- 1 story

Andromeda, meanwhile, got it’s “other” game on. 

Characters

Shepards and Ryders

Female Shepard -- 46 stories

Female Ryder -- 38 stories

Male Shepard -- 7 stories

Male Ryder -- 5 stories

Nothing too surprising here. The gap between female and male protagonists existed right from the beginning, and Trilogy stories edged out Andromeda ones overall as well.

Trilogy Characters

James Vega -- 18 stories

Ashley Williams -- 14 stories

Zaeed Massani -- 12 stories

Kaidan Alenko -- 12 stories

Garrus Vakarian -- 11 stories

Vega takes the top spot easily, his popularity spread out among several different ships. It’ll be interesting to see how he does next year with FShega disqualified as being too popular. For this year, if you remove FShega, Vega drops to a tie for 4th with Garrus.

Zaeed is another character whose popularity was spread out over a bunch of different ships. Despite being in the top 5, Garrus ultimately comes out as an underperformer, with about half of the requests for him going unfilled.

Andromeda Characters

Sloane Kelly -- 11 stories

Tiran Kandros -- 10 stories

Harry Carlyle -- 8 stories

Kaetus -- 6 stories

Evfra de Tershaav -- 5 stories

In contrast to the trilogy, Sloane is the only character whose popularity really comes from multiple ships. Harry had one story with MRyder instead of FRyder, while all of Kandros and Evfra’s stories come from being paired with FRyder. Kaetus also had a single source (Sloane/Kaetus).

The underperformers

Garrus, Tali, Joker, Liam, Vetra, and Avitus Rix all had among the highest offers and requests for the Trilogy and Andromeda (respectively) but had serious underperformance when it came to stories written.

Characters with at least one offer/request and no fic were: Benezia, Legion, EDI, Kelly, Grunt, and Morinth.

Liam/Jaal was the highest requested ship (4 requests) that got no fic. Ships that had 3 requests and zero fic: Turian Vortex Poet/Girl He Left Behind and Female Ryder/Liam/Jaal.

Macen/Avitus had 7 requests and 7 offers but only one fic.

Since this post is already long enough, the list of ships that had no fic is underneath the cut.

Liam/Jaal, Turian Vortex Poet/Girl He Left Behind, Female Ryder/Liam/Jaal, Aethyta/Benezia, FemShep/EDI, Jack/Miranda, Morinth/FemShep, FemShep & Grunt, Jack/Vega, Kaidan/Miranda, Reyes/FemShep, Eve/Wrex, Zaeed/Samara, Avitus Rix/Male Ryder, Steve Cortez/MShep, Kaidan/FemShep/Garrus, Legion/FemShep, Legion/Tali 

Ashley/Tali, Cora/Sarissa Theris, Female Turian Vortex Dancer/Female Human Vortex Dancer, Kasumi/Vetra, Kelly/FemShep, Kelly/Traynor, Liara/Tali, Miranda/Liara, Nyreen/Vetra, Peebee/Kalinda, Peebee/Lexi, Traynor/Tali, Samara/FemShep, Suvi/Cora, Tevos/Aria, Vetra/Kesh, Anderson & Hackett, Grunt & Jack, Nyreen & Liselle, Urz & Eezo 

Ann Bryson/Hackett, Bailey/FemShep, Avela Kjar/Jaal, FemShep/Mordin, FemShep/Hackett, Feron/Liara, Gianna Parasini/Lorik Qui’in, Grunt/Miranda, Vega/Ashley, Javik/Samara, Joker/Ashley, Kaetus/Female Ryder, Kasumi/Rolan Quarn, Kasumi/Thane, Kian Dagher/Female Ryder, Liam/Vetra, Male Shepard/Tali, Reyes/Aria, Rorik/Ljeta, Oraka/Sha’ira, Vetra/Reyes, Zaeed/Aria, Zaeed/Castle Arcade Asari 

Bain/Male Ryder, Garrus/Reyes, Gil/Reyes, Jaal/Evfra, Kaidan/Vega, Kirrahe/Mordin, Kolyat Krios/Mouse, Drack/Wrex, Nihlus/Garrus, Cortez/Joker, Cortez/Robert, EDI/Joker/FemShep, FemShep/Garrus/Victus, Jaal/Peebee/Female Ryder, Peebee/Kalinda/Female Ryder, Saren/Nihlus/Garrus, Harbinger/FemShep, Vetra/Tentacle Monster All this data put together by the amazing @keita52. <3

[zandoct]

Why Mass Effect Andromeda is Great

So I finished MEA the other day, and I loved it to pieces. Easily top 5 games of all time, and only ten good games have ever been made. So imagine my surprise when I, the Discourse Liker, logged on and discovered that this beautiful work of art hadn’t been received very well. Who let the critics get away with that? Anyway, I’m going to explain why I love the game and why it’s really good and even some things it did better than the original trilogy.

Spoilers for the new alien species ahead

The Magnificent Ten

One of the great strengths of MEA compared to its predecessors in the franchise is the small cast of intimately written characters that form the Tempest crew. The Tempest is approximately one half the size of Normandy SR-2 and smaller than the SR-1, which means that there aren’t any faceless, nameless crewmembers. Instead, you have what I call the Magnificent Ten, because I’m bad at naming things.

To me, keeping the crew small and tightly knit is a fantastic improvement over previous games. This gives more space for the interrelationships (i.e. the way characters interact with characters other than the player) and helps you feel like you have greater agency over the Tempest, as a home. Which is one of the major themes of the game. Come on now. For instance, Lexi’s character is explored by her interaction with Drack as much as it is with Ryder, or Kallo with Suvi.

Compare that to ME2, which had a brilliant but very large cast that hardly ever interacted with each other. As discussed in this video, the only way a player can have agency in RPGs is if the NPCs have agency, and a great way to achieve that is to explore their relationships outside of the player. Using the banter system from Bioware’s other major modern title Dragon Age is one great way of making a team a family. WHICH IS THE OTHER MAJOR THEME OF THE GAME.

A rigorous analysis of the characterisation of the Tempest crew would take an entire other essay, but I’ll just comment that I found the interplay of themes shared between the crew – especially their loyalty missions – to be one of the best expressions of theme, tone and allegory in any game I’ve played.

For instance, Cora’s arc is (partially) about how you deal with being rejected, and Peebee’s arc is about how you deal with rejecting others. Liam represents your own mistakes and Jaal represents the mistakes of others. Vetra represents letting go of a role and Drack represents stepping forward into a role. Obviously this is just my interpretation but the very fact the narrative can be interpreted in so many fascinating ways is testament to its… beauty.

The supporting cast outside of the Tempest family are also a diverse, fascinating bunch. The Angara are represented on Aya by Commander Evfra, Moshae Sjefa and Governor Paaran. They have an interesting chemistry and each represents an individual, subtle example of Angaran culture. This makes the introduction to Aya a little overwhelming, filled as it is with so many important characters and unknown conflicts. But it’s a great way to be immersed in your Ryder, who’s probably also blown away by one of the game’s major discoveries.

A significant problem some critics have with the game is that only two sapient species were introduced in this new galaxy. While it would have been cool to see one or two more, the intense focus on two cultures is more reflective of the how the game interrogates having a smaller crew.

Plot Course, Setting Course (or; The Process of Renewal)

Another key criticism of MEA is that it is very iterative of the original series: keep in mind though that the original series is also iterative in its own way, drawing inspiration from a number of sci-fi/fantasy sources (KOTOR I’m side-eyeing you big time)

I think it can be refreshing to examine the themes of the original series with a new perspective granted by the different events and characters of MEA. Fundamentally, stories are only compelling because of what it tells us about humanity. Yes, the ancient Prothean tech is reminiscent of the Remnant. But they have different goals, different culture and most importantly, their two commentators – Liara and Peebee, respectively – are affected by them in different ways. As William Faulkner said:

“The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.” What I mean by this is that the similarities between the Protheans and the Remnant are less important than the different effect they have on the player and our companions.

The same goes for the Reapers and Kett and their twisted idea of uplifting other species. The Kett’s semblance of Ur-fascism is part of what makes them thematically distinct from the Reapers, rather than their superficial aims. Throughout the series, the Reaper’s philosophy was vague and mainly gathered from piecemeal exposition of the supporting cast, especially Legion and Saren rather than the Reapers themselves. The Kett are also enigmatic for most of the game, but what you learn about them is more concrete than their all-powerful Milky Way counterparts.

A fantastic scene, demonstrating that there's a niche for moments with no dialogue in Bioware games.

Discussing ‘the Kett as fascists’ is worthy of its own article so I will only briefly explore it here. In 1995, Umberto Eco provided a great analysis of fascism, both past and future. He states that fascist ideologies can be extrinsically and intrinsically contradictory while also being equally valid under the umbrella of fascism, something he calls Syncretism. For instance, Nazism and Mussolini’s fascism disagree in their treatment of religion, but both are quite clearly forms of fascism. He goes on to describe the theoretical qualities of ‘ur-fascism’, a hypothetical social order that could potential arise from any of the aforementioned qualities. I propose that the Kett are best analysed from the perspective of these qualities:

1. Cult of Tradition. The Kett oppose developing their philosophy. For instance, The Archon is harshly scrutinised by the Primus for trying to develop a new strategy for exalting the Angara. “We will take Heleus the way we always have.” To Archie’s credit, he’s hardly a true progressive, just an example of syncretism in action, and he’s also more of a practical leader than an ideological one.

2. Fear of difference (or diversity). The Kett only wish to integrate the aspects of species they deem appropriate, in a carefully predetermined way. They do not allow actual species into their hierarchy and they do not tolerate unexpected diversity. Eco refers to this as “an appeal against the intruders” but this can equally apply as “an appeal against the conquered” – that strategy is just as common in human history as the former.

3. Irrationalism (or, action for action’s sake). The Archon is not compelled to justify his actions to the player, and instead simply acts. To criticise himself would be to generate difference, or imply that his ideals may be unworthy, and that is unacceptable.

It is difficult to consider the Reapers so politically, as their motivations are left more ambiguous. For instance, one cannot draw a comparison between the Reapers and the Citadel Council as easily as one can between the Kett and the Andromeda Initiative, who both arrived from beyond Heleus. The differences between the Kett and the Reapers, then, are subtle but still significant.

Me looking at the discourse surrounding Andromeda

It’s also worth keeping in mind the struggle Bioware faced in producing a game that incorporated the themes of the original series (discovering ancient things to lead into the future, the interaction between technology and humanity) while also doing something new. In fact, MEA very clearly is trying to revisit the concepts of the first game in a new and improved light, and I think from that perspective MEA excels.

But there is plenty new here, don’t forget that! They were damned if they didn’t incorporate enough of the original series and if they didn’t innovate enough, and I think this lies at the root of its lukewarm reception. That and the complaints about cinematics. WHICH ARE BASICALLY ON PAR WITH THE ORIGINAL SERIES SO SHUT YOUR MOUTHS

S.A.M., INTERFACE

Paragon and Renegade, eat your heart out

As you can probably tell, this essay has focused much more on narrative and metaphor than on gameplay, purely because I find gameplay the least compelling part of all games. However, most would agree that the combat of MEA is the most fun of the franchise and the difficulty is very well gauged. I also think the dialogue interface (no pun intended, hahahaha get rid) is a real improvement. The demise of Paragon/Renegade system is finally here, and the game is better for its loss. Every decision must be judged on its own merits and the tone of dialogue options is much easier to predict by having four consistent possibilities.

The psych profiles Lexi compiles are also a much cooler way for the game to express how your Ryder is developing than a coloured bar. It’s a shame that ‘persuade’ abilities are lost: a system similar to Dragon Age Inquisition, where perks in history, politics, academics etc can increase your character’s expertise and hence persuasiveness would have been nice. But MEA doesn’t give you an easy way out, and sometimes you have to make a decision knowing it’s the wrong one. That’s very cool.

Also, right lads, no listen right, they actually FIXED side quests in MEA. Don’t you dare look me in the eye and say the side quests were anything but trash in ME, ME2 and ME3. Don’t you dare. Other than the fetch quests, ME3 wasn’t too bad, but MEA gets them really right. I would have liked a bit more cinematic dialogue in some of them, but it’s SO much better than Shepard and co silently jogging around a heartless rock jungle, pressing buttons. Also, who are these folk who love ME2 but attack Dragon Age Inquisition? What the hell is going on?

We Made It (to a conclusion)

One of the key differences between the original series and MEA is the scale. MEA is about a small supercluster of the galaxy (a piece of a corner of the universe, as Suvi calls it) and the few factions that are influential there. In ME1-ME3, life as we know it is at risk on a galactic scale. There are hundreds of different factions and a broader cast. Which you prefer is a matter of personal taste, but the intensity and detail of MEA’s story is a refreshing change for the franchise. I’ve often felt the vast, vast lore of the original series is done a disservice by the main plot, which renders all of it largely futile because all that matters is defeating the Reapers. Both games are about survival, but Andromeda’s smaller stakes allow for a variety of factors – political, environmental, military, philosophical etc – to influence that survival. In the original series, the only thing that influences survival is resolving the reaper threat. The original series is about heroes of legend rising to the challenge of saving the galaxy from an ancient conflict. On the other hand, Andromeda is about an inexperienced, relatively ordinary group of people who are prematurely forced into difficult situations and have to make a home out of them. I know which one I’d rather believe in.* Let me know what you think, send an ask or reply or w/ever

*Just kidding I love every Mass Effect game. Righto, cheers

See ya

[wickedwitchofthewilds]

WIP Wednesday: dance, gun, dress, throw

Thank you! <3

Dance:

Her knee-jerk reaction is to say no, she isn’t interested, but she paused. Maybe this was what she needed. Something to take her mind off of Evfra. Of course, it could backfire. But it could also work. So-Hee slid back into her seat. “Just one,” she replied.

Jack smirked and got up to walk to the bar. Her eyes follow him as he weaved his way through the dance floor and to the bar. He leaned close to talk to Dutch. While Dutch pours their drinks, So-Hee looks down and grabs the still partially full glass in front of her to drain it. As soon as she’s done, Jack is sliding back into the booth and placing a new glass in front of her.

Gun:

Dress:

The warm water hit his back first and rumbled in approval. As soon as he was finished, he would dress and go back to his own quarters for the few hours he had before returning to Aya. When he left this apartment, he wouldn’t be coming back to it. His curiosity was sated. He was done. Hopefully, the Lieutenant felt the same way. She didn’t seem like the type to crave romantic entanglements either.

Throw:

“What?” Min-Seo demanded. “You don’t want to end it?”

So-Hee kept her eyes on the ground, but she shook her head.

“So you don’t end it, and then what? Eventually, he figures out how disappointing you are. Or how you only offer violence here and he throws you away. You are lacking, So-Hee. And the Commander is too important of a person for you to have as a plaything,” Min-Seo said. “Do you really think you’re worth causing a diplomatic incident over?”